Three Indiana “Peace Colleges” are operating a Peace and Conflict Studies program, designed to undermine the

United States’ military and foreign policy. Among other things, these programs teach students how to become “conscientious objectors” to war and help enlisted men and women to shirk their duty in wartime. ManchesterUniversity and GoshenCollege call their programs the Plowshares Collaborative, while EarlhamCollege claims its Peace and Global Studies program, which covers the same subject matter and takes a similar point of view, is based in the school’s Quaker ideals, as codified by the American Friends Service Committee. All three schools share a $13.8 million endowment from the Eli Lilly Foundation, whose corporate headquarters are based in Indianapolis.

The Plowshares Collaborative takes its name from a verse by the prophet Isaiah: "And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." But the Old Testament does not teach pacifism, nor does the New. Jesus advised his disciples to take up arms in self-defense: "But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one" (Luke 22:36). Early Church Father and respected political philosopher St. Augustine wrote, "We do not seek peace in order to be at war, but we go to war that we may have peace."

The courses taught in programs like Plowshares purport to teach "peace and social justice." And what decent human being would be opposed to "peace and social justice?" In truth, this catch phrase has become a slogan for left-wing antiwar organizations like International ANSWER and its parent group, the Workers World Party. While peace and justice are values to be cherished, it is far less certain whether programs like the Plowshares Collaborative provide the intellectual means to these ends. In fact, their course materials focus less on defending freedom and democracy, and more on blaming the U.S. for global problems and conflicts.

To specialize in Peace and Global Studies at the undergraduate or graduate level, an EarlhamCollege a student must complete a course in "postcolonial theory." This refers to a fashionable specialty of academic leftists pioneered by the late Edward Said, which focuses on the alleged imperialism of western democracies like the United States.

The website of the Peace and Justice Studies Association, to which the three college programs belong, showcases programs that preach anti-globalization and characterize America as an "empire.” Among the speakers at its 2004 conference was the University of San Francisco's Stephen Zunes, an outspokenly anti-American and anti-Israel professor. One panel deals with anarchism on a global scale, while an untitled program claims President Bush's policy in the Middle East is a "dangerous policy for an interdependent world." All conference topics reflect only one side of contemporary controversies regarding "peace and justice."

A panel open to high school students offers pointers for anti-globalization activists. Another features non-academic activists like Jim Haber of the radical War Resisters League. Haber has condemned America's participation in the war against Hitler. Other speakers include Mubarak Awad, who was deported by Israel because of his links to terrorism.

The "Peace Colleges" make no secret of their narrow approach to the complex and controversial issues they address. The department website at ManchesterUniversity's Peace Studies program cites radical icons like Noam Chomsky, Abbie Hoffman, and the socialist Emma Goldman, along with a quote from the heavy metal band Rage Against the Machine: "Yes I know my enemies! They're the teachers who taught me to fight me! Compromise, conformity, assimilation, submission, ignorance, hypocrisy, brutality, the elite! All of which are American dreams...." There are no conservative viewpoints offered on the website or views of authorities not clearly identified with the political Left.

Needless to say, none of the programs devoted to matters of war and peace features a single faculty member with a degree in military history or military science. This reflects the systematic bias of all of these programs against the military component of peace. Its ideological orientation suggests these are not academic courses at all, but programs of indoctrination in their leftist political agenda.

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